


Nowhere In Nature

by diashann



Category: The Vampire Diaries - L. J. Smith
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-30
Packaged: 2018-03-25 01:51:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3792136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diashann/pseuds/diashann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amelia Maxwell is a freak of nature, at least now she can put her unnatural abilities to use, in order to bail out some friends from her past; one Damon Salvatore and one Lorenzo Amantea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. || 01

**Author's Note:**

> rated explicit for later chapters, mentions of non-con Augustine sexual experimentations, depictions of violence in later chapters. also, not Enzo's actual phone number and i'm sure some lovely Virginian would love if you didn't ring them at odd hours of the day, asking about The Vampire Diaries.

**a bird in a gilded cage / i could never love like that**

 

_"It'll all be okay, Mia" Damon rasped, sweat blanketing both their brows. "We'll be together soon, I promise."_

_The thin girl shook and tried to speak but he stopped her. He knew it was all a lie, that he had no intention on returning for her. She would only slow him down, she hadn't had a proper meal in God only knew how long. Pulling her from Whitmore house as it burned was a courtesy he felt he'd owed her after all the times she'd saved his ass over the years. He wished he could've saved Enzo, too. Or, at least, Damon with humanity wished he could have saved Enzo._

_Even without his humanity, there was something telling him he needed to pull her out, but that's as far as it extended. He'd leave her in some shrubbery on campus for her to dry out or possibly be recaptured. "I'll go get us some food," He said, voice devoid of emotion as he stared down into scared brown eyes, before leaving her there._

_She knew she'd never see him again. She knew he'd leave her but she didn't expect what came next._

_Pulling as much energy as she could from within, she gathered herself up out of the shrubbery, standing. A scream filtered through her ears, somewhere to the right of her, it was coming from Whitmore house. She ran off in a blur, barreling straight into the raging fire._

_There he was, burning in his vervain gilded cage._

_They locked eyes._

  
Mia jolted awake, the sound of an infant crying on the fifth floor of her apartment building waking her up for the forth night in a row. Her breathing was labored and she was drenched in sweat, battling with the memory of demons from a past she'd long forgotten.

The infant continued to wail, even at the attempts from its mother who tried to calm it. In a way, she felt bad for the infant above her. However, she thought it funny that no matter how old people got, they were still no good at communicating their feelings; all they could do, what they were mostly compelled to do, was cry. She groaned outwardly as she dared to steal a glance at the analog clock on her bedside table. It was too early to be awake but she knew she'd show no signs of sleeping if the small child kept at it.

Getting up from her bed, she found her way into her robe. Mia managed to grab her keys on her way out the door, heading for the elevator, hellbent on going to the fifth floor.

* * *

 

"What the hell do you mean there are _six_ siphoning witch-vampire hybrid freaks out there?!" Damon said the words quietly but anyone could hear the venom in his voice.

Jo looked between Elena and Damon, eyes wide with fear. And she didn't just have to worry about herself now, she had to worry about Rick and the baby inside her. "We have to get the ascendant back, my father made that very clear," Jo said, voice shaky.

"Okay, simple," Elena started, "We'll just take it back from Lily."

Damon gave an exasperated chuckle. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. "Do you honestly think my mother is going to part with that thing?"

Elena stared at him, "We're not going to give her a choice."

"When Stefan finds out about this, he's going to question why he ever turned his humanity back on in the first place," Damon said, giving Jo a parting nod before walking away. Elena wasn't going to follow him, she would stay with Jo, try to take her mind off of everything.

As he walked away, Damon could hear Elena telling Jo that everything would be okay and not to worry because the bloody-thirsty Gemini witches were safely locked away in their prison world. His sweet girlfriend even went as far as to try steering the conversation toward talk of the baby shower she wanted to plan.

Every time Elena said the word 'baby', it was like a dagger to Damon's heart because he couldn't give her a baby. Or, he could, but not in the way he wanted to.

* * *

 

Mia knocked on the door again, a bit insistently the second time around. She had her hand raised and poised to knock again when a ruffled-looking blonde answered the door. She tried to pick up a male scent and couldn't; _this woman was a single mother_. At the thought there was a pang of sadness from within (one that Mia didn't understand) that she couldn't keep from touching her eyes.

"Well, what do you want? Are you going to tell me to get her quiet like everyone else on this floor? Believe me, I've gotten enough calls already." At the sound of the blonde's voice, she almost wanted to cry. She was starting to think that there were more British people in America than there were actual Americans.

"No, I came to offer assistance, I don't even live on this floor," Mia said softly, light brown hair gently tousled about to frame her angelic face.

The blonde squinted,"How the bloody hell can you even hear her if you don't live on this floor?"

Mia sighed, growing increasingly annoyed with each passing second that the infant wailed on in the distance. "Vampire hearing, and judging by the silence coming from your chest I assume the term vampire isn't entirely new to you."

"How can I know that I can trust you with her?" The blonde snapped after two moments of letting herself filter what was just said to her.

Mia shrugged,"You can't possibly know, that comes with the territory of being a parent, you'll never know who you can trust with your child. But you can trust that my idea of shutting her up isn't snapping her neck and drinking from her like an infant-sized CapriSun."

The blonde stepped aside, face still riddled with confusion, extending an invitation to Mia. Once the door was closed, she waited for a nod that said it was okay to proceed to the nursery. The unlikely mother nodded and followed her neighbor closely as they found their way to the upset little.... _werewolf_.

"This is a werewolf, I can sense it. Why do you have her?" Mia asked, concern etched on her face as she picked the wailing baby up. The crying stopped immediately.

After a few moments of enjoying the silence, the blonde spoke up quietly. "That's _none_ of your damn business," she said.

"I'm not judging, I just don't want a pack at my door, is all," Mia said, gently placing the child down into the crib, taking a moment to revel in the pain she felt just watching her sleep.

The two women left the nursery, the blonde not too quick to continue their conversation. "My name is Rebekah," the blonde said, out of the blue, as Mia was half way to the door. She assumed she had outstayed her welcome so she was hoping to get back to her apartment and back to sleep.

Mia turned to face the other woman, a slightly surprised look on her face, "I'm Amelia, I live on the third floor."

"Well, Amelia, thank you for your kindness."

"Anytime," she rasped quietly before making her way to the door and leaving, thoughts on nothing but returning to sleep where moments from a not-so-distant past would plague her.

* * *

 

"So, you need my help?" Enzo asked, a bit amused, knowing he hadn't talked to Damon in a while. He only agreed to meet at _The Mystic Grill_ because he was bored and found no enjoyment in the whole Sarah Salvatore scheme.

Damon rolled his eyes, starting to regret calling Enzo in the first place, "There was something about what Jo told me that made me think, something I remembered. These things are blood-thirsty hybrids; rippers, all of them. Doesn't that remind you of Augustine?"

Enzo nodded a little, "The ripper compound. Only, the psychopaths you're looking for are witches."

"Oh, cut the bull, Enzo. I know she's alive and I know she's the one who saved you," Damon said casually, a sullen expression on his face.

After downing another shot of Jameson, Enzo gave Damon a withering glance, "I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about, mate."

 

* * *

 

_As the smoke surrounded her she knew she was running out of time. One look in Damon's eyes and she could tell he'd gotten rid of his humanity. She'd seen that missing spark in his aquatic baby blues once before._

_She knew, the moment he'd dragged her out without Enzo at his side, that he'd done something he'd regret when he flipped the switch back on. The two men had spent months planning their escape and Damon always found a way to fill her in and tell her they planned on saving her, too. Hell, she was the entire reason Damon had intentionally gotten himself caught in the first place. He wanted to save her, just like he saved her following the burning of Fell's Church._

_Usually, the only time she found a way to communicate was during or after The Augustines' sick and perverted mating studies. Most of the time they had her partnered with Enzo, every now and again they'd force Damon into her. Enzo had no problem doing things to her, it was his only release or outlet and he'd always whisper his apologies afterward. But Damon.... Damon was another thing entirely._

_Mia moved her hands to the bars of the cage where Enzo was, regretfully, trapped. Her flesh burned and her heart leapt as his fingers brushed hers through the bars. "Leave me," he said, flesh burned to the point of barely being recognizable. "I won't leave you," she said quietly before whispering an incantation to force the lock to release. At the sound of the lock being turned, Enzo pushed the door open with what little strength he had left in his body. Mia was quick to gather him up in her arms even though she was weak from the spell she had just cast, the lack of food over the past year, and the flames that licked at her legs. "I've got you," she said, as she dragged him as far away from the building as she could, just before fire engines or loitering students could show up to watch._

_"We've got to get food," she said, looking around desperately. Enzo grabbed her wrist, hearing people approaching them, knowing the voices were all too familiar. "Augustines are coming, you need to go," he said, voice laced with regret, eyes full of tears that fell down his fire-touched skin. Mia started to shake her head but Enzo gave her a hard shove, making her drop him from her arms and to the ground near the shrubbery where Damon had left her to die._

_Mia scurried off into the darkness and watched as The Augustines dragged Enzo back into captivity. Soon after, she found a med student to feast on. Once she regained full strength, she didn't even look for Damon, she went into a restaurant bathroom and took a long look at herself in one of the mirrors. She compelled herself to forget all about them, at least until she saw them again. Something told her she wouldn't see either of them for a really long time._

Mia's phone rang on the bedside table and she jolted upright again, thankful that it was at least 10 AM this time around. She picked up her phone and glanced at it in an uninterested manner, it was an unknown number so she ignored it. She rubbed at her eyes, wondering why she was dreaming about perfect strangers for the the forth night in a row. Who were these men and why did she keep having the same dream about them, about a fire? Maybe it was stress, having been so close to the some odd month anniversary that marked the death of her EMT partner Tom Avery. She missed Tom, there was something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on but he made her happy, he was also a phenomenal friend with benefits. Tom knew his way around a bedroom just as well as he knew how to keep her laughing or smiling after a particularly tough day on the job.

She rubbed her face, trying not to think about Tom and their bedroom shenanigans, it was inappropriate. Her phone buzzed again, a text from the number she didn't recognize. It was from Rebekah on the fifth floor, thanking her again for getting the baby to quiet down. The child had been eerily silent since Mia's 4 AM visit and she kind of hoped the child would stay that way.

Before she could quickly tap out a reply, she received another text:

 

 **703-343-1125**  
**10:15 AM**  
_Hello, beautiful. It's Enzo, I need your help. Damon and I both do, so if you could get your lovely ass up to Mystic Falls, that'd be great._

 

 **Amelia Maxwell**  
**10:17 AM**  
_I don't know any Enzo or Damon . . ._

 

 **703-343-1125**  
**10:20 AM**  
_Could you really forget us?_

_ _

_I'm offended._ _  
_

 

  
And just like that, she remembered everything.

 


	2. || 02

**because / aftermath**

 

A deeply buried wave of recognition rippled through her and there was little she could do to stop the nausea or to quell the long-forgotten pain that had decided to resurface. Mia pushed her cell phone as far away from her as she possibly could before she got up and went to the bathroom, expelling what could only be dinner from the night before. Her head was spinning, her breathing was rapid, and just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, she heard the baby upstairs starting to fuss.

"You've got to be kidding me," She groaned.

* * *

 

Elena's eyes bulged out of her head almost completely, "Damon...you'll die."

He shrugged a bit, blue eyes full of desperation, his desire to keep her close trumping his survival. "I can't watch you die, Elena, I refuse to watch you grow old."

"Oh, but you'll so easily subject me to doing just that?" Elena asked curiously, eyes watering.

Damon stepped closer to her and shook his head a bit, "No, I'll be fine so long as no one takes a drink out of me. We'll be perfectly human together and you can work at that O.R. and we can live in TriBeCa." His eyes searched hers almost frantically, hoping she'd hear him out.

"B..but what if something goes wrong?"

"Babe, that's human life, for you. Things are bound to go wrong and we'll figure it all out, together."

Elena opened up her mouth to reply to her beloved boyfriend but fell short when an all too familiar voice chimed in from the foyer. "You two are extremely dull," the intruder complained.

Damon rolled his eyes and turned his attention off of Elena, wondering why the hell Enzo was the master of piss-poor timing.

"What do you want, _Cock-blocks-a-lot_?"

Enzo smirked, "I was making sure your mother got home in one piece, I reckon someone should be worried about her well-being."

Lily bustled through the door and past Enzo, stopping only briefly. She eyed the two love birds near the fireplace, almost wearily, and then disappeared in the direction of her bedroom.

"Was she covered in blood?...Enzo, what happened?" Elena asked, sounding all types of edgy. She'd been worried about Lily before, but now she was worried that someone was out there missing a head.

Enzo shut the front door and then walked further into the boarding house, dark eyes full of something that Damon couldn't quite place a finger on. "That's not important right now, well it sort of is, but we have more pressing matters to attend to. I know things have been rather busy around here, what with flipping humanities back on and planning wedding slash baby showers. However..."

He paused for dramatic effect.

"Spit it out, Enzo," Damon snapped, having had enough with mind games. If he wanted to play mind games, he would've gladly kept Katherine Pierce alive, or maybe talked a certain Hybrid into staying in town.

Enzo smiled before pulling out his cell phone, punching in commands, fingers leaving the touchscreen with a flourish after a few moments of tapping away at it. There was a dial tone, phone set to speaker, reverberating through the open room. Damon looked annoyed, Elena looked confused, and Enzo looked like he was enjoying himself tremendously.

Whoever Enzo had been intending to speak with obviously didn't get the memo or wasn't biting because, after the billionth ring, it went to a voicemail box. After an audible beep came a woman's voice, one Elena couldn't possibly recognize, _"Hey all, you've reached Amelia. I'm probably buried nose-deep in some novel, busy pretending that life imitates art... Or maybe I'm watching a John Hughes movie marathon. I'll never tell. Leave me a message, you filthy animal!"_

Damon's eyes widened only a bit but enough for Elena to notice the change. "What's going on, Damon?"

"You sure do ask a lot of questions, love," Enzo said, tucking his cellular device back into his jacket pocket, trying his best not to look irritated.

The only Salvatore brother present let a huge grin take up residence on the lower half of his face as he took two steps closer to his good old friend. "You found her?" Damon asked, voice full of what Elena could only describe as newfound joy.

Enzo gave a smirk before nodding his head a single time.

* * *

 

By the time she'd gotten up to the fifth floor, her cell phone had already rang about 5 times. Of course, it was still lying on her bedside table and it was much too late to turn back to go and get it.

Just as she was about to knock at the door marked 5C, it swung open to reveal a rather well put-together Rebekah. "What, are you psychic now, too?" Mia droned sarcastically before following the blonde further into her apartment. "No, I just figured with all of Hope's fussing that you'd be round sooner or later," Rebekah said, going over to finish zipping up a huge designer suitcase.

"Going somewhere?" Mia asked Rebekah as she eyed the abundance of designer bags, on her way to pick up a fussy baby. "Hope... is that your name?" She whispered as she looked down at the, now quiet, wide-eyed baby in her arms.

Rebekah halted in her actions in order to watch her mysterious neighbor and her even more mysterious interaction with her niece. "We were only staying here temporarily, at the request of her mother and father. We'll be returning to the French Quarter," She answered after a few moments of hesitation.

Mia turned to face Rebekah more directly, trying to hide the disappointment on her face. "Wow... and just when I was starting to like being awake at all hours of the night," Mia shot sarcastically.

"I'm sure Hope would love to visit, if it's okay with her parents," Rebekah said it so dryly that Mia was certain she'd never see either of them again.

She moved to set little Hope on a blanket that was laid out on the carpet, toys scattered all over it. "No, it's fine. I have a feeling I won't be here for much longer either. I have some stuff to take care of in Mystic Falls," she said carelessly as she stood up straight, eyes still on the playing baby.

"Mystic Falls... in Virginia?" Rebekah asked, curiosity more than peaked. Mia nodded in response, "I'd ask if you've ever been there but judging by the look on your face, I'd say I already have my answer."

The blonde looked like she was desperate to say more but she held her tongue. After a few moments of silence, Mia sighed. "Well, I guess this is goodbye, I should go start packing. It was really nice to meet you, Rebekah."

Before Rebekah could even respond, Mia was out the door. She mumbled "You too, Amelia" even knowing she probably wouldn't be heard.

But she had been, a small smile on Mia's face as she leaned back against the elevator wall.

* * *

 

"Someone mind telling me what's going on?" Elena asked, more than a little on edge as she stepped closer to the two men in the room.

Enzo rolled his eyes and turned to face her, "Well dear one, we've just found ourself some leverage into that beloved prison world where there are heretic psychopaths."

At that moment, Elena pulled a face, confusion was ever-present on her features. "But Bonnie?"

Damon smirked, "We won't need Bonnie."

"But the ascendant needs the blood of a Bennett witch," Elena said dumbfounded.

Enzo patted Elena's head as though she were a small naive child, "Mia is a Bennett witch, in a sense, love." The two men locked eyes and Damon continued the story with, "Mommy wasn't the first one to turn a Gemini into a vamp. Let's just say that."

"But I thought you just said she was a Bennett witch, now she's a Gemini too?" Elena shook her head, confusion clinging to her heavily.

"Her father was one of the founders, that's how we met. Thaddeus Maxwell was a Gemini witch, but he was like Kai, couldn't produce his own magic. He was disowned by his coven and worked hard to prove that he wasn't the heretic they thought. If I recall correctly, her father was the first siphoner.

"Anyway, he pulled himself a wife from the other side, through Amara the anchor, and she was here, in Physical body. Nothing ever clicked into place until recently. Amelia's mother was Tessa Maxwell. Tessa, also known as our good old friend Qetsiyah. Which also explains the way poor Emily Bennett always flinched in her presence," a look flashed before Damon's eyes, one that Elena had never seen before.

"Is that all to the story, Damon?" Enzo teased.

Damon rolled his eyes at his friend before biting the inside his cheek. He continued his tale with,"Well, no. Amelia and I... we were betrothed before I went to war. But when I got back...Katherine sort of got in the way. Everything went to hell after that, she died, I saved her. She went with me when I left Mystic Falls, kept me in line up until..."

"The Augustines, where you abandoned us both," Enzo said, with finality.

The elder Salvatore glared over at the man with the slanderous tongue, "I didn't have my humanity."

The front door slammed, bringing all of their attention to it. Stefan straggled in, features hard. "Well, isn't this a lovely reunion?" He rasped, standing there and staring at the three people before him.

"Speaking of no humanity.." Enzo muttered teasingly, at the sight of the new arrival.

* * *

 

By the time Mia packed up everything she'd need, she took a long hard look around and realized that she wasn't surprised Rebekah was leaving. In reality, they lived in much the same way; barren walls and little scatterings of personal belongings throughout their tiny Louisiana apartments.

Her eyes scanned her bedroom and landed on the picture of she and Tom on her bedside table, a guilty pang hit her at full force. She knew now that she'd clung to him because he subconsciously reminded her of Stefan who, in turn, reminded her of Damon. She picked the framed picture up and stuffed it inside of her backpack.

She pulled all of her bags out of the room and managed to get them down to her Black Jetta with no problems. Upon climbing into the drivers seat, she pulled out her phone, the urge to do something she hadn't done in too long had hit her head-on. She called Charlotte, hoping she'd have something good to tell her on her drive to Mystic Falls. One could only hope that she was no longer running all around New Orleans, counting bricks.

The sun was rising and Mia would make it to the Salvatore Boarding House by dinner time. She just hoped that this wasn't a mistake, there was no telling what she was blindly walking into.

_The things she'd do for Damon Salvatore._

* * *

 

 

 

_ _


End file.
